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/ SPORTS / THURSDAY JANUARY 21, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
North Carolina State's Richard Howell, left, and Duke's Mason Plumlee look for a rebound during the first half of the Wolfpack's 88-74 victory against the Blue Devils on Wednesday.
Duke drops game against N.C. State
BY AARON BEARD Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. — Tracy Smith scored 23 points, Dennis Horner added 20 and North Carolina State stunned No. 7 Duke 88-74 on Wednesday night.
Javi Gonzalez had 15 points for the Wolfpack (13-6, 2-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), including a critical 3-pointer that beat the shot clock with about four minutes left. It was N.C. State's first home win against Duke since 2004 and the first win against the Blue Devils overall since the first round of the 2007 ACC tournament.
By the time it was over, Wolfpack fans were charging the court for the kind of win they haven't savored since an upset of highly ranked rival North Carolina in coach Sidney Lowe's first season.
Kyle Singler scored 22 points to lead the Blue Devils (15-3, 3-2), who fell behind by double figures in the first half and by as many as 17 points in the second half.
This was hardly the outcome anyone could have expected. Despite a tough loss at Georgia Tech earlier this month, Duke had looked every bit like the top team in the ACC. All three of the Blue Devils' league wins had come by at least 20 points, while their defense had allowed less than half of teams to even crack 40
percent shooting against them
N. C. State, meanwhile, was picked to finish last in the league in the preseason and was still struggling to gain its footing in Lowe's fourth season as coach at the program he helped lead to a national championship as a player.
Yet behind Smith — and perhaps some more magic in Lowe's red coat he wears for rivalry games — N.C. State hit shot after shot to build a 10-point first- half lead, then pushed that margin all the way to 69-52 on Horner's dunk with 8:53 left.
Smith shot 10 for 12 to lead a balanced offense that had five players in double figures. Most impressively, N.C. State shot 58 percent — including 64 percent in a first-half performance that charged up the home crowd — while the Blue Devils hit just 39 percent.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Panthers' home win streak ends
BY ALAN ROBINSON
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — The score was tied late, and the Pitt students were stomping their floor-level sets so passionately it caused the grandstands to ripple like a wave. Pitt's home-court advantage is one of the best in college basketball, and Georgetown knew this would be difficult.
Turns out it wasn't quite as hard as the Hovas expected.
Chris Wright scored 27 points.
No. 12 Georgetown held No. 9
Pittsburgh scoreless for four minutes in a late run, and the Hoyas ended the Panthers' eight-game winning streak with a 74-66 victory Wednesday night.
Austin Freeman and Greg Monroe added 13 points each. Monroe also fed Julius Vaughn inside for a key basket that made it 66-58 with 3:50 remaining after Vaughn put in a free throw to complete the three-point play. Vaughn scored.
11 points.
"We believe we're a secondhalf team. We were aggressive and took what the defense gave us," Wright said.
Gilbert Brown scored a career-high 20 points for Pitt, but the Hoyas (14-3, 5-2 Big
Pittsburgh led 56-54 on Jermaine Dixon's three-pointer with 7:48 remaining, but the Panthers didn't score again until Brown made two free throws with 3:48 remaining that cut the Hovas' lead to 63-58.
Wright hit a three-pointer that put the Hoyas ahead for good at 59-56 before Wright and Freeman dunked on successive possessions to finish a decisive 9-0 run.
The Hoyas shut down Pitt's leading scorer, Ashton Gibbs, by limiting him to eight points — 9.5 below his average — on 3 of 16 shooting, 2 of 8 from three-point range. Gibbs also was the primary defender on Wright, who repeatedly hurt the Panthers inside and out.
Wright is averaging 18.7 points in his last seven games.
"We have different guys on different nights, and it was his (Wright's) night and his teammates kept finding him," Thompson said.
"I noticed they were closing
"There are so many good players,good teams (in the Big East),you have to work and work and hope the stars are aligned properly, and they were tonight."
JOHN THOMPSON III Georgetown coach
Pitt (15-3, 5-1) missed a chance to go 6-0 in the Big East for the first time and lost for only the third time in 13 home games against ranked opponents since the Petersen Events Center opened in 2002.
East) halted Pitt's 31-game home winning streak a season after the Panthers stopped Georgetown's 29-game run at home by winning 70-54.
"There are so many good players, good teams (in the Big East), you have to work and work and hope the stars are aligned properly, and they were tonight." Georgetown coach John Thompson III said.
on me a little bit (on outside shots)," Wright said. "So I wanted to attack the basket and create some havoc for them."
Pitt hadn't lost at home since a 75-73 defeat to Louisville on
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Feb. 23, 2008. The Cardinals led Pitt by five points in the final minute Saturday, but the Panthers came back to win 82-77 in overtime in a game in which Brown didn't score.
"We win games with defense, but we lost this game with defense," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "I'm very disappointed. We haven't defended the way we can, and it caught up to us."
Georgetown and Louisville are the only visiting teams to win twice at the Petersen Events Center, where Pitt is 125-11. The Hoyas also won there 67-64 on Jan. 5, 2005.
Georgetown's Greg Monroe, right, scores over Pittsburgh's Gary McGhee in the second half of the Hoyas' 74-66 victory against the Pittsburgh Panthers on Wednesday.
Wright scored 12 points in the
first half as Georgetown, coming off an 82-77 loss to No. 4 Villanova, made its first five three-point attempts while taking leads of 19-11 and 25-17.
Wright's early scoring was a good omen for the Hoyas, who
dropped their previous three to Pitt. Georgetown is 13-0 when Wright scores in double figures but has lost all three games — to Villanova, Marquette and Old Dominion — in which he didn't.
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